No need to consult the archives of The team : a double page on the Belarusian football championship, such as that published in the sports daily of Wednesday, March 25, is extremely rare.
In these times of the fight against the coronavirus, the former Soviet republic is an exception. It is the only country in Europe to let its footballers play official matches, as if the pandemic has stopped at the borders. To the point that Russian and Ukrainian channels now broadcast the meetings, which the public sometimes attends to the sound of the accordion.
For other sports, the picture is more nuanced. As the national basketball championship was interrupted on March 14, collective training continues. An in-between " complicated " to live for the French basketball player Alexandre Gavrilovic, 28, pivot of the club of Tsmoki-Minsk ("the Dragons of Minsk").
"In Belarus, we hear that everything is under control, that there are very few cases, and therefore that everything is fine, that there is no problem. But we foreigners don't know what to think of it when we see the catastrophic situation in France. "
Normally, the capital's club competes in two competitions. For the reserve team, the Belarusian championship: eleven titles in a row, current series. For team one, the United League, an event in which Russian, Polish, Estonian and Kazakh teams also take part.
Friday, March 27, the leaders of the United League have already entered the final suspension of the season, without appointing a champion. There is still a doubt about the national test. "At the end of last week, we were announced in training that the Belarusian championship will resume in April", specifies Gavrilovic.
"I follow the same precautionary rules" as in France
The basketball player, who knows no other compatriot in the city, has already visited the French Embassy. "To find out if his employees had specific information, but they had the same as me." "
In a March 23 dispatch, the Belarusian news agency listed 81 cases of coronavirus, including 22 cures. No deaths and "No reason to panic", according to the text, as if it were a question of minimizing the risks of the disease.
Here, all official information has received the approval of the very authoritarian Alexander Lukashenko, head of state since 1994, formerly banned from staying in the European Union for his repression of the opposition.
"I don't see myself coming in to stay cloistered, while here I can keep my physical condition"
Failing to speak Russian, the sportsman mainly gets information via French or American media. “The situation in France being dramatic, I think it would be a mistake to want to return. The embassy told me the same thing. I don't see myself coming in to stay cloistered, while here I can keep my physical condition. " Especially since his parents still live in Alsace, one of the most exposed French regions.
Even some 1,700 km from Strasbourg, his hometown, Gavrilovic is trying to make arrangements. “I live here as I would live in France. I follow the same precautionary rules. I don't shake hands with anyone and I wash mine all the time. The only time I go out is to go to training. "
"People still go out in clubs, go to restaurants"
Not really the case for the rest of the capital, he says, with the exception of a few residents wearing a mask: "When you walk around Minsk, everything looks normal, everything is open, people go out to nightclubs on weekends, they go to restaurants, wander the streets. "
"I salute my coaches and teammates with a sign. At first, everyone took him a little to laugh. Now they understand it, they are still aware of the situation. In the locker room, we also have space, so that's fine. Well, not sure it will be of much use either: in two hours of training, basketball, I necessarily have contact with other players. "
An American teammate has already terminated his contract with the club. Among the foreign basketball players still in Minsk, the club also includes another American and a Serb. And so a Frenchman, Alexandre Gavrilovic, also a Serb by his father – his tattoo on his right arm, "Balkan", reminds him.
First spent in American university basketball, the French second division and Bulgaria, in Minsk for a year, the pivot is under contract until June. Without knowing yet, despite the collective training, if he will have replayed in competition by then.
